• Blog - Crafts - Creativity

    Grad card with a tip

    June 18, 2016 - By 

    We have another graduation party to attend so another handmade card was in order.

    grad card with a tip

    The speckled background wasn’t my original intention so this is where my tip comes in.

    I had extra embossing powder surrounding the Congratulations stamp and for the life of me I couldn’t get it all off.  I decided to embrace the imperfection and expand on it, making it part of the design. I heated up the card stock then lightly sprinkled more embossing powder over the card. I heated it from underneath as not to blow it away. Easy peasy.

    grad card with a tip

    I added some iridescent embossing powder as well for a celebratory shimmer. I really love how it turned out.

  • Around home - Art - Blog - Creativity

    T Tuesday: progress edition

    June 14, 2016 - By 

    Welcome to T stands for Tuesday…grab a your favorite cup and stay a while.

    T stands for Tuesday

    This summer I’ve been tackling projects and items long overdue on the to-do list. I’m drowning in half finished goals. It’s really beginning to drive me a bit crazy. I start my morning or my 3am bout of insomnia with thoughts of how my day is going to go and then BAM…I get hit with a curve ball or worse yet, am distracted and start another project.  I haven’t even finished a pot of coffee lately, which is totally out of character for me. (Ah ha…just there….see how I worked in a beverage reference) 🙂

    But seriously, the frustration with myself is mounting. Every “not used daily” surface has something in progress all over it and that’s not even mentioning the outdoors. I think I have too many ideas and unfortunately have enough stuff around to get started but either run out of steam, ideas or gumption to continue. I even totally blew up my blog over the weekend and am still working on fixing it. UGH! The blog backup I used definitely didn’t work the way I thought it did….I could not recover what I lost.

    I am feeling a bit of accomplishment with both a personal project and a household one.

    I completed the cover on my heART journal just yesterday.

    heART journal T Tuesday progress edition

    Here are the inside pages. The earliest page was from Feb 2014. Good grief…talk about taking a long time to to 6 pages.

    heART journal T Tuesday progress edition

    Mini-me and I did get her room painted. Here’s an old before and the after side by side.

    T Tuesday progress edition

    What a difference. She’s had the green and stamped flowers since we moved in 13 years ago. It had just been painted so we just left it as is. Definitely time for a change.

    T Tuesday progress edition

    We’re slowly going to be replacing the accessories such as the fabric bins in the cubbies. Mini-me had yet to decide what color she wants for her accent color.

    T Tuesday progress edition

    It’s definitely more sophisticated already. Agh…my baby is growing up!

    So today…I’m going to try my best to finish a thing or two I’ve started. Wish me luck!

    What are you doing today?

  • Blog - Kitchen

    T Tuesday: early harvest edition

    June 7, 2016 - By 

    Since school has been out I feel as if I’m busier than before. Not sure how that happened. Yesterday we went to my in-laws house to plant in their garden. I had 3 tomato plants yet to plant from the ones I started back in March. I also planted summer squash, green beans and snow peas.

    So where does the harvest come in, you ask. They have a huge strawberry patch and wanted us to pick. Mini-me and I picked nearly three 5 quart ice cream pails full.

    I also harvested some rhubarb so I could make a batch of muffins. Mini-me and I are the only ones who will eat rhubarb, so I’m cautious on how much I pick. I baked these muffins in the afternoon.

    rhubarb muffins

    I’m really not much of a baker. In fact I don’t like to do it at all. Too much measuring. Rules to follow. Not my thing. But this recipe, which I slightly adapted from the original on allrecipes.com, turned out perfect in looks, texture and taste.

    Rhubarb muffins

    • 1 1/4 cups brown sugar
    • 1/2 cup vegetable oil
    • 1 egg
    • 1 tsp vanilla extract
    • 1 cup buttermilk
    • 2 1/2 cups flour
    • 1 tsp baking soda
    • 1 tsp baking powder
    • 1/2 tsp salt
    • 2 cups diced rhubarb

    sugar crumb topping

    • 1 Tbsp melted butter
    • 1/3 cup organic cane sugar
    • 1 tsp cinnamon

    Using an electric mixer, combine first 5 ingredients and mix thoroughly.  Then add the dry ingredients.  Again mix until thoroughly incorporated. Lastly toss in the rhubarb. This may be easier done by hand unless you have a large paddle on your mixer.

    Place muffin liners in pan and fill each nearly to the top. Next melt the butter and add the sugar and cinnamon. (next time I think I’ll add some rolled oats for more texture) scoop a bit on topping on each muffin.

    Bake at 350°F for 25 mins and enjoy.

    rhubarb muffins

    Today will be spent painting mini-me’s room. She’s picked out a very sophisticated grey. I’ll share some before and after photos when we’re done…hopefully next week for T stands for Tuesday!

    What are you doing today?